How to get TATA Indicom Plug2surf [Qualcomm CDMA] and Reliance Netconnect [ZTE] work on a Mac OSX, 10.5 Leopard

I recently bought the TATA indicom Plug2surf as had to go to a place where ISP’s didn’t have any unlimited data plan. I used to access internet through GPRS on my (Airtel) n73, but considering the fact that their speed is too low and the plan now costs Rs275/- for 15 days, its too expensive. I decided to buy a CDMA based connection for better speed and had two options, Reliance Netconnect and the TATA Indicom Plug2Surf.
I called representatives from both of the company and asked them to show me a demo of how it will work at my home (on my Macbook pro w/ OSX leopard). Both the team told warned me that their services are not Macintosh supported but I assured them that they just had to let me use the device and nothing else. I tried both and finally, at the end of the day, I chose the Plug2Surf as their plans where bit cheaper.

Before I called them, I had made sure my mac is ready for the devices. So, here’s how you do it.

Getting ready for TATA indicom Plug2Surf

TATA Indicom’s installation was pretty easy as they provide the modem drives for mac. But the guys from Indicom may try hard to convince you that Plug2Surf does not work and mac and you need their dialer to connect to the internet.

1. Download the Mac Drivers for Qualcomm CDMA MSM modem.
2. The zip file you downloaded has to be unzipped. You’ll see two files inside, one for the Newer Intel x86 Macs and other one for the Older PowerPC Macs. Open the appropriate installation (.pkg) file. (Note : Unplug the device before opening the file.)
3. Click Continue.
4. In the next window, “Continue” after the reading the license and then click “Install” .
6. Now open System Preferences > Network. You’ll see “Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM” on the left side bar (or it pops up a window, that it has found it). Click on it.
7. Type Telephone No#777 , Account Name and Password both internet.
8. Click on “Advanced” > Select Vendor : Generic and Modem : Dialup Device. Click “OK”
9. Your Done! The “Connect” button should be clickable now and will connect to the Indicom service once clicked.

Getting ready for Reliance NetConnect

As Indicom guys, the Reliance guys will also tell you that their modem won’t work on a Mac. But in this case they are right, it won’t work unless you make it but its pretty easy. You need to make the chinese device (ZTE 880) work on OSX. Thanks to Hari Selvarajan, you can .

1. Download the zip archive of open-source Mac OS driver for ZTE 880 and install. You’ll be asked to restart, do so.
2. Download this (Info.plist) to your computer, and copy it over the existing Info.plist in this location/System/Library/Extensions/osx-pl2303.kext/Contents/
3. Now open “Terminal” and type the following commands into a terminal window.

4. Now plug the MG 880 (Reliance Netconnect Device).
5. Now open System Preferences > Network. You’ll see “ZTE CDMA Tech” on the left side bar. Click on it.
6. Type Telephone No#777 , Account Name and Password both internet.
7. Click on “Advanced” > Select Vendor : Generic and Modem : Dialup Device. Click “OK”
8. Your Done! The “Connect” button should be clickable now and will connect to the Indicom service once clicked.

Comments

been using tataidicom huawei wireless usb modem for a year plus on MBP with os 10.4.11, as far i know, the device had to first activated with windows via bootcamp/virtualized windows. though i still haven’t been able to get a dialer for os x. aslo the actual speeds while browsing or downloading are nowhere near to the speedtest.net results, at best they’ll hover around 1/3 to 1/4 of the speeds shown on speedtest.net. though i don’t know why tataindicom insists on not providing os x support. vodaphone has complete support for their usb modems to run on macs.
as far as real world speeds are concerned, i get upto 30kbps of pead DL speeds, and an average of 12-15kbps sutained speed. it sucks.

@vijay,
1. Did you give this tutorial a try ? Also, I think there are lot of new stuff now in Indicom which was not there previously. say, like the unlimited plan.
2. The speeds depends on the signal strength ( I believe), and can give you better speeds if you look for some place with better signal strength.
3. Agreed that they don’t have the dialer fo mac but if you look at the download link http://www.tataindicom.com/download/dialers/EC321_EC325_Mac_OS_Driver.zip , its tata indicom website. So they give out installer which makes the modem work on OSX, which is pretty much same as supporting the OS.
4. About the speed, I think you got confused with KBps and kbps, both are different, Bytes are 8 times bits.
So if you get 30KBps then you should be happy

Nice instructions. could you help me in creating the same for an airtel edge usb modem MMX610U/610P EDGE MODEM there are no drivers for mac osx and i am using leopard 10.5.4 my knowledge is very limited in mac os hence would appreciate all the help can get.

Hi,
I did everything as instructed. But when I hit connect, it said that “the selected communication device does not exist. Please verify your settings and try again”. My plug2surf USD modem was connected and the green signal was on

whooooaa!!! thanks for this tutorial!
That’s really strange that tataindicom servicemen say macos is not supported.
What about those cards things? Isn’t it better – using an express card rather than a usb modem?
P.S. What really disappoints me is the network round-trip delay – you can’t use it for Skype or SIP

Vijay,
Make sure you have a # in the Telephone number(#777).
I forgot to put the # and it was giving me the same error ““the selected communication device does not exist. Please verify your settings and try again”

Hi Sreejith, you would not believe but i am unable to find the same drivers for pc. Being a hardcore mac user, have u by any chance found them anywhere i can download.
Professionally i am a mac user, first comp i laid my hands on was Mac 8100, used to work on AVID a high end video and film editing software, now mac has got its own software FCP which is now the most sought after.

Srijeeth, Thanks a LOT for these great instructions. The driver download & set up went perfectly. I had a rough idea how to do the configuration in OSX but didn’t know the right settings and couldn’t find the proper modem drivers. I am running a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.5.6 and Windows XP SP3 with VMWare. On the “dark side” I’m using Tata Indicom’s dialer and the installation went very well, no problems, works great. An now, thanks to you, the Quallcom Modem from Sungil Telecom Model SXC-1080 CDMA 1x USB Modem is working great on both sides of my Mac with no problems.

im able to connect and use the plug to surf whiz on my macbook. however, when i try using it on my dell laptop, i keep getting a message on the dialer saying something to the effect ” drivers not installed for the modem, pls install the driver & restart the program” i hv installed the driver several times but keep getting the same message.
it would be great if you could help me solve this problem!
thanks

Hello Sreejith,
I would like to know, if you could possibly help me use Tata Indicom’s Photon+ HSIA Service (ZTE Wireless Data Terminal USB Modem) on my MacBook Pro?. The guys from TI said its only for Windows but I’m sure theres gotta be someway to make it work on Mac.

Hello Sreejith,
I would like to know, if you could possibly help me use Tata Indicom’s Photon+ CDMA2000 1X HSIA Wireless Data Terminal Service (ZTE Wireless Data Terminal USB Modem) on my MacBook Pro?. The guys from Tata Indicom said its only for Windows but I’m sure theres gotta be someway to make it work on Mac.

I am using Tata indicom USB modem SXC-1080
i was using earlier windosXP OS .Now i had upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate.But drivers for USB modems are not working please help me where to get dese drivers for Windows 7.

Sreejith:
Thanks so much for the tutorial. I’m trying to get the ZTE device to work on my Mac. I have Mac OS x 10.4.11 and tried to follow your steps, but when I got to changing the plist file, /System/Library/Extensions/osx-pl2303.kext could not be modified. How can I work around that? I deleted the plist in that folder already and cannot even restore it. Thank you so very much!

Oops, I was able to figure that one out. But after changing the plist, I got an error message from terminal when I put the commands in saying the file wasn’t authentic or something along those lines. Anyway, I’d appreciate your advice but will keep troubleshooting (obviously, I am a novice). Thanks again Sreejith!

well i found a very easy way to sort out problem of using tata indicom plug 2 surf internet:
1.Download driver genius pro from isohunt.com via torrent.
2.install driver genius pro on your machine having windows vista with plug 2 surf installed on it.
3.now backup all the drivers of your machine with driver genius pro and save them in a folder.
4.now install windows 7 on your machine and after setup completion plug your tata indicom plug 2 surf modem in the usb port.you will get a message saying driver not successfully installed.avoid it.
5.now go to device manager and under unknown devices select sitx_usb modem/quallcom etc.and select it to update and select find in folder,then go to the folder where you have backed up your vista drivers and there you will find 3 folders namely:
SIT_1x_usbmodem
SIT_1x_usbmodem device
SIT_1x_usbmodem Port
now select one of these and update the drivers,if it fails try another folder(out of the 3 above mentioned).and click on install driver anyway from the pop up.
5.now do update for all the unknown devices in the device manager that corresponds to the usb modem.
6.when all successfully installed create a connection named tata indicom with #777 as dialling number and ‘internet’ as user name and password (without quotes).
7.then connect and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!
[This all is result of my one month hard work to get it work.And guys feel free to contact me at harrandfriends@gmail.com for any queries and confusion.Thanks!!!!!!

I did give a trial on the steps you gave above, but i had a doubt.
I was planning to take either a TataIndicom Photon+ (3.1 Mbps) or Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ (3.1 Mbps) wireless modem for my MacBook Air.
Will any of these two work? Just wanted to make sure that they work without wasting 3500/- bucks.

Indicom Photon Plus works on my Mac. Insert the USB. A CD icon shows up on the desktop. Eject it. Go to Network in System Preferences and add a location. You will find Epivalley Modem. Apply. Configuration – Default. Tel number is #777. User name: internet. Password: internet. Then in Advanced settings, click on Vendor and choose ‘au by KDDI’. Model ‘WxxX PC card’ and apply. It should work.

I am hoping you shall be able tp a problem which I am facing with my EPIValley USB Modem (for Tata Photon+) on my mac (OSX 10.6/Snow Leopard)

While Mac drivers are enlcosed with the modem, I need to install the same (needs a restart) everytime I plug the modem into my mac else it does not recognise the device as a modem (it mounts a disk instead)

When I try to use the Photon+ access manager provided by Tata for the Mac it manages to locate the modem (probably runs some script at the backend) but then gives an RX signal error when I try to connect – post that the notification just shows ‘Check the antenna bar-poor radio’

I have tried the link on ur website but got the page not found error. Could u please share the correct site for downloading Tata Indicom Photon + (EpiValley) CDMA 1x USB Modem Drivers for Windows 7 (x64). I have been dying to get the drivers yet… Please please and please help…

Hi, Have managed a temporary workaround to the problem I had mentioned above. Have stopped using the Photon+ application, instead – now I just use the connect button in the network preferences to connect.
The thing to remember is that you will need to eject the disk drive that the EPIValley modem mounts on the desktop every time the modem is connected before the OS will recognise it as a modem. After that it handles like a baby.

i have a 1x usb modem of tata indicom of epivally. i lost the driver and diller softwere.
i search the diller and download still it is not working .can any one help me in this problem. i want to download the softwere for the use of tata indicom usb modem.please somebody help me

i have a problem plz give me solution i have tata plu to surf but i had a another computer if i want connect internet with one plu to surf in to two computers how is it possible plz give me the solution

Thank you, I brought a MacBook Pro 10.6 Leopard Snow with me and I still had the old Reliance zee CDMIA 1x wireless modem with me; of course it did not register until I configured it with your labels, and it worked! However, the connection is so slow. When I used it with the Pc it was much faster. Is there a bug or some hardware issue here? Gmail goes mute, and chat blocks out; I cannot do very much with this dead slow connection. Is there a way to speed it up a bit? Good for you buddy for helping us with this anomaly.

hi, i have a tata indicom cdma 1x modem but its not working on windows 7.
everything is getting installed except the modem driver. i tried to download the driver from net but failed to do so..please help

i m not able to use TATA PHOTON + on mac OS X 10.5.8
the photon default dailer shows connected in the network preferences but ….my browser doesn’t detect the connections.
saying ” you r not connected to internet ”

SIR, I AM USING TATA Plug2surf Whiz USB MODEM ON LINUX. I WANT TO CONFIGER THIS MODEM ON WINDOWS 7 BUT IT UNABLE TO CONNECT. PLEASE GIVE SOLUTION. IF POSSIBLE SEND THE CONFIGRATION PDF FILE STEP BY STEP.

Hi Sreejith, I have to thank you for providing the information about configuring Tata Photon + on a Mac laptop. I bought this plug to surf gadget on 5 September this year (2010) but the technician who brought it could not install it! I then called Tata Customercare but they gave me time and never showed up. They told me they could not help me with a Mac as the device was not compatible with a Mac! I had to search from another computer for help online and in the troubleshooting query your blog came up. I tried the instructions given by you in 2008 and it worked, and is still working, although my device is a Huawei EC 1261? Do you think that the selection of modem in system preferences as ‘Generic’ and model as ‘Dialup’ is the proper solution even today? I know you will say if the device has started working, it must be ok, but I also notice that sometimes it does not connect even if the configuration is unchanged.

I am using windows 7 os in my PC. I am trying to install the data card in the PC. But the driver one which i have is not supporting to PC. any one have any other driver for windows 7 os.
the error message is ” OS VER FAIL”

hai sreejith,I have a TATA INDICOM CDMA1X USB MODEM,4 MONTH ago it was used in madras but now still it not working in kerala,so what i do to use this modem or i can to change my sim connection plz help.am using window 7 operating system. how can change the postpaid connection to prepaid connection of tata indicom and also notify not valid sim